Turkey charges Author I happen to be reading, Orhan Pamuk

[Inland]

Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish poet who has written semiautobiographical books on the problems of Turkish identity, being on the cusp of east and west, secular and religious.

The current fiction is about a Turkish poet who has been living in Germany out of fear of prosecution and returns to the most dragassed corner of Turkey in order to reconnect with a woman, and gets involved in the struggles between state and religion.

The character in the book doesn't end up happily.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1774293,00.html

September 11, 2005

Booker novelists denounce Turkey for charging author




TURKEY has been condemned by Kazuo Ishiguro, the novelist, and fellow Man Booker prize nominees over a threat to imprison one of its leading writers for highlighting his country’s role in the 1915 Armenian genocide.
Orhan Pamuk, 53, who has written several award-winning books, was charged last week with “denigrating national identity” with comments in a Swiss newspaper. If found guilty at his trial, set for December 16, he could be jailed for up to three years.

***
John Banville, nominated this year for The Sea, said Pamuk was right to remind compatriots of past crimes committed in their name. “It will be a disgrace if Pamuk is jailed, and Turkey should realise the damage that will be done to its reputation if it goes ahead with this injustice,” he said.

[MADem]

1. My head is elsewhere

I read that and was thinking, THANKSGIVING. I had a picture in my head of a gobble gobble turkey charging a Turkish guy....but to be serious, the money quote in that piece is this:
The charges against Pamuk followed remarks made in February to a Zurich newspaper. “Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and no one dares to speak out on this but me,” he said.

Turkey is extremely sensitive over its role in what is known as the Armenian genocide. Between 600,000 and 1.2m Armenians are thought to have been killed between 1915 and 1917 during a forced evacuation. The Turks say the figure is much lower and was the result of ethnic conflict, the first world war, disease and famine.

Two subjects you avoid in Turkish company, Kurds and Armenians--it can get quite dicey. The Turkish Embassy actually published a very expensive book, bound, with photos, that they would hand out to people in Embassy business and social venues, telling them that the Armenian thing was overblown. I was given one a decade or more ago, and may still have it somewhere...it is rather creepy reading.

[Inland]

2. Fear of poultry causes misunderstanding

Anyway, the Armenians were a long time ago, but the Kurdish question is now....combining the two may be it for Parmuk.